The Moose (TV series episode)
The Moose was the fifth episode aired during Season 1 of the M*A*S*H TV series, also the series fifth overall episode and the fifth episode in production order. Written by Laurence Marks and directed by Hy Averback, it originally aired on CBS-TV on October 17, 1972. Synopsis Hawkeye Pierce wins a young Korean servant girl, Young Hi, off a visiting sergeant in a card game with the intention of freeing her. However, Young Hi thinks she now belongs to Hawkeye. He and the other doctors attempt to show her that she is free. Full episode summary Sergeant Baker stops by the 4077th with his "moose"; a Korean girl named Young Hi, whom he "bought" from her family for $500.00. Hawkeye is outraged and tries to convince Baker to let the girl go free. Eventually, he plays poker with Baker (and cheats with a little help from Radar). Baker agrees to trade Young Hi for the debt he runs up. However, he explains to Young Hi that she now belongs to Hawkeye, rather than that she is free (as was Pierce's intent). Pierce first attempts to get rid of Young Hi by sending her on a truck to Seoul, but she gets off when the truck stops for gas and hitchhikes back to the 4077th. Eventually Pierce, Jones, and Trapper decide to "demoosify" Young Hi and teach her how to be a normal person. They soon meet the head of Young Hi's family, Benny, and discover that he is Young Hi's little brother. He immediately plans to sell her again. Initially, Young Hi agrees with Benny out of loyalty to her family, but she then returns, having told Benny to "shove off". In the end, Young Hi is enrolled in convent school in Seoul. In the last scene of the episode, Pierce, McIntyre, and Jones receive a letter from her. Research notes/Fun facts *When Benny shows up and says, "You bought Young Hi from Baker. Now you want to dump her. What's the beef? She goofing off?" Pierce replies, "The 'Dead End Kids' in Korea." The "Dead End Kids" were six young actors from New York, New York, who starred in the play and the movie "Dead End". *Though Larry Linville and Loretta Swit are listed in the opening titles, neither Frank Burns nor Major Houlihan appear in the episode. This is the fewest members of the show's main cast to appear in an episode apart from season 4's "Hawkeye" (in which only Alan Alda appears). *Another "moose" was seen in the fourth-season episode Of Moose and Men, though in that episode a "moose" was defined as a Korean girlfriend. *The term "moose" is derived from the Japanese word "musume" which means "daughter" or "young girl". *When Sgt. Baker first arrives at the 4077th and meets Trapper and Hawkeye, he tells them (regarding Young Hi) that "these gooks don't mind working." Hawkeye tells him he doesn't like that word, Baker repeats the slur, and Hawkeye pulls rank to tell him to knock it off. In some syndicated airings, both instances of "gooks" are edited out. *'Anomaly:' In a portion of the scene of Hawkeye and Young Hi right after Baker leaves that is usually cut out of syndicated airings, Hawkeye mulls over how he's going to tell his father he's just acquired a human being. One of the scenarios involves him saying "Dear Dad, I know how you always wished I had a sister..." Hawkeye repeatedly mentions having a sister throughout Seasons 1 and 2, including asking his father (via letter) to give her his love ("Dear Dad"), telling a General he's saving up to buy her a truss ("Chief Surgeon Who?"), and receiving an oversized sweater from her ("Mail Call"). Guest stars/Recurring cast *Paul Jenkins as Sergeant Baker *Virginia Ann Lee as Young Hi *Timothy Brown as Spearchucker Jones *Patrick Adiarte as Ho Jon *John Orchard as Ugly John *Craig Jue as Benny *Linda Meiklejohn as Lieutenant Leslie Scorch *Barbara Brownell as Lieutenant Jones Category:Season 1 episodes